Friend or enemy? Water ambivalence illustrated with the example of selected descriptions of Dutch hydrotechnical construction
Abstract
Flood is not an episode in the history of the Netherlands, but a recurring fact of nature and social experience. The Dutch struggle against water (this metaphor seems to dominate the descriptions of the Netherlands) is not only troublesome and strenuous, but its significance also happens to be assessed in a positive way. In the literature indicated by the author, fascination with the capriciousness of the element of water and Dutch water engineering (satisfying a tourist‘s appetite?) takes prece‑ dence over the catastrophic and empathic discourse of lamentation. The article is an interpretation of the Dutch model of struggling against the element of water through the prism of anthropological categories of culture and nature. The exemplifications come from travel literature, tourist guides and scientific monographs, the reading of which shows that the mutual relationship (symbiosis) of the water element and cul‑ ture, the mentality of the Dutch who struggle with nature is the reoccurring concept
scheme. What is the main feature of the aquatic element is the ambivalent influence of water on Dutch culture. It is Dutch fairy tales that may prefigure this ambivalence.
Keywords
turystyka; inżyniera wodna; powódź; polder; Niderlandy
References
Ashworth G.: Planowanie dziedzictwa. Przeł. M. Duda-Gryc et al. Kraków 2015.
Balicki J., Bogucka M.: Historia Holandii. Wrocław 1989.
Barthes R.: Mitologie. Przeł. A. Dziadek. Warszawa 2008.
Baśnie niderlandzkie. Wybór, przekład i komentarze A. Dąbrówka. Warszawa 2007.
Bohusz F.K.: Dziennik podróży. Kraków 2014.
Brocki M.: Kultura i natura. Uwagi na marginesie badań nad gestami. „Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa” 1994, nr 3–4, s. 19–22.
Byrtek K.: Amsterdam. Gliwice 2016.
Calder S., Mawer F.: Amsterdam. Perfekcyjne dni. Przeł. A. Lewandowski. Warszawa 2015.
Carrithers M.: Natura i kultura. W: Encyklopedia antropologii społeczno-kulturowej. Red. A. Barnard, J. Spencer. [Przeł. M. Barbaruk-Fereńska et al.]. Warszawa 2008, s. 390–393.
Eliade M.: Traktat o historii religii. Przeł. J. Kowalski. Warszawa 2011.
Frejlich C.: Cywilizowani rewolucjoniści. „2+3D” 2013, nr 2, s. 54–61.
Hastrup K.: Natura jako przestrzeń historyczna. Przeł. S. Sikora. „Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa” 1994, nr 3–4, s. 8–13.
Kołakowski L.: Mini wykłady o maxi sprawach. Kraków 2009.
Kucharski A.: Franciszka Ksawerego Bohusza odkrywanie Holandii (1778). http://wilanow-palac. pl/franciszka_ksawerego_bohusza_odkrywanie_holandii_1778.html [data dostępu: 11.06.2017].
Orzechowski M.: Holandia. Presja depresji. Warszawa 2014.
Poldery. http://www.geozone.pl/poldery,s%C5%82ownik_geograficzny,s%C5%82owniczek_geogra‑ficzny,580.html [data dostępu: 20.06.2016].
Rudnicki B.: Holandia. Podróże marzeń. Warszawa 2007.
Sondej P.: Amsterdam. Gliwice 2016.
Wieczorkiewicz A.: Apetyt turysty. O doświadczaniu świata w podróży. Kraków 2012.
Żurawicki M.: Holandia. Warszawa 1983.
Wydział Filozoficzno-Historyczny Instytut Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej Uniwersytet Łódzki ORCID: Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4226-9131
Sebastian Latocha, doktor nauk humanistycznych w zakresie etnologii (2017), absolwent Wydziału Filozoficzno-Historycznego (2013) i Wydział Filologicznego (2012) na Uniwersytecie Łódzkim. Laureat Nagrody Naukowej Fundacji UŁ (2017). Adiunkt w Instytucie Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej UŁ. Zainteresowania badawcze: wiedza potoczna w różnych dziedzinach kultury, antropologia medyczna, medycyna domowa, etnografia krajobrazu, krajobraz i mapa w refleksji humanistycznej i praktyce społecznej.
The Copyright Owners of the submitted texts grant the Reader the right to use the pdf documents under the provisions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License: Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY SA). The user can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose.
1. License
The University of Silesia Press provides immediate open access to journal’s content under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s.
If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, graphs, maps), the author declares that the said works are of his authorship, they do not infringe the rights of the third party (including personal rights, i.a. the authorization to reproduce physical likeness) and the author holds exclusive proprietary copyrights. The author publishes the above works as part of the article under the licence "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International".
ATTENTION! When the legal situation of the illustrative material has not been determined and the necessary consent has not been granted by the proprietary copyrights holders, the submitted material will not be accepted for editorial process. At the same time the author takes full responsibility for providing false data (this also regards covering the costs incurred by the University of Silesia Press and financial claims of the third party).
3. User Rights
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, provided they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
4. Co-Authorship
If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
I hereby declare that in the event of withdrawal of the text from the publishing process or submitting it to another publisher without agreement from the editorial office, I agree to cover all costs incurred by the University of Silesia in connection with my application.
